1911 Women’s Coats

16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Saturday, November 11, 1911: Mater and I went to Milton this morning on a shopping tour. As soon as we got there we went into several cars in which they had many curious things from California on exhibition. A shark was one of these, only he happened to be dead. An ostrich mounted, a live alligator and some monkeys. We each got a souvenir. Mine is some kind of pampas grass. After seeing all this we commenced shopping or mother’s rather since she was getting things for me. I got a chocolate colored coat trimmed with contrasting material, a brown hat with a blue and green feather, simply cute, a skirt for school and kid gloves. Have I not cause to be thankful?

Source: Ladies Home Journal (Sept. 1911)

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

It sounds like train cars had been converted into a traveling museum and animal farm.

I bet that Grandma looked awesome in her new coat, skirt, and gloves. The September and October, 1911 issues of Ladies Home Journal showed the latest coat styles.

2 thoughts on “1911 Women’s Coats”

Imagine not having underwater photography before 1926, let alone not having TV nature programs to let us peep into the wild natural world. It must have made people wonder what the dead shark was like when it was alive and swimming under the sea!